The Just
by JustValiant
Summary: Set before Prince Caspian. Edmund thinks back on his previous time in Narnia and how he grew up there and of Aslan. Without the gentle, the magnificent and the valiant Narnia would fall apart, it didn't need the just.
1. Prologue

Alright well, here's the prologue to my new story. I hope you like it :)

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><p>Narnia, was a beautiful world and had now been free from it's forever winter curse for many hundreds of years since the battle of Beruna had taken place. The Golden age, was Nanria's golden time and years.<p>

After the White Witch had been defeated and Aslan left that night, the golden age had been ruled by the four children of the prophecy, the two sons of Adam and the two daughters of Eve, the four children who had grown up to love the world and the people that they ruled.

The two sons of Adam who had lead Narnia in to it's battle against the White Witch, broken her spell and gone against every one of the creatures in her army and even the White Witch herself in the end.

And the two daughters of Eve, who had stood by Aslan to his last moments, before helping him to lift the White Witch's spell and free even more of the creatures who would willing help to fight for their side of the battle, then heading bravely on to the dangerous battlefied, working to help to heal the injured and save thier lives.

After the battle Aslan had shown himself as living again and then he took everyone to Cair Paravel, the most beautiful castle in all of Narnia and crowned the four young children from Finchley, Kings and Queens of Narnia.

To the Clear Northern Sky, King Peter the Magnificent.

King Peter, also known to many as High King Peter, had ruled the territories of Narnia with a firm hand, but never once was it the same overpowering hand he had held his brother down with. He was well known especially in the Legands and his slaying of Maugrim had won him renown throughout the land of Narnia. Alongside all of this he with the help of his family and royal council made many decisions and fought many battles with General Oreius at his side. General Oreius was the strongest Centaur in Narnia and had stood by Peter's side in the Battle of Beruna and every other battle, he was easy to forgive Peter or any of his siblings for their misktakes, however he would never stop telling Peter about his bad habit of rushing in to things.

To the Radient Southern Sun, Queen Susan the Gentle.

Queen Susan was well known thoughtout the land that she ruled as the Gentle Queen and from what she had been told, the most gentle Queen that Narnia had ever known to step foot on to their beautiful land. Her graceful beauty attracted many suitors from loads of far away lands. Susan had establish much peace since her rule, however sometimes her beauty had caused problems. Susan turned down every offer of marriage and some men couldn't take that, which would always draw Peter and General Oreius into the matter and sometimes it would break Narnia's peace, but was quick to rein it all back into order. Susan's horn was a most helpful thing and she would commonly place in into her sister's hand when Peter took her to war with him and left Susan in charge. Susan was also extremely skilled with a bow and arrows, so any who were to young to fight in Peter's army would be able to learn from Susan until they were old enough to do so, if they wished.

To the Great Western Wood, King Edmund the Just.

Opinions on King Edmund were varied dependent on who you asked in Narnia. His siblings and most of the royal council had one view, the rogue creatures that still served the dead White Witch held a second and their were others who held a mixed thrid opinion. Edmund helped his siblings to rule what had become the pleasant land of Narnia and he occupied one of he four thrones that stood in the castle of Cair Paravel. Edmund would train with General Oreius as often as he could and sometimes General Oreius would say no to the young King claming that the boy needed his rest and that training twenty hours a day, seven days a week wasn't going to achieve that. However, many of those who had a view of hatred on Edmund had no knowledge of just how hard he worked and in all honesty no one outside of Cair Paravel heard anything of Edmund as all of the tales that they heard consisted of High King Peter, Queen Susan and the young Queen Lucy. In the first few winter's that Edmund spent in Narnia no one saw anything of him and even his siblings struggled to even speak to their brother. The one person who ever saw Edmund over the winter months was Susan, but even then she only saw him once a day and that was hardly enough time. Edmund, holding at his the title of Just, was meant to make a lot of decisions, some of which Peter made saying that his brother would otherwise have to much to do. Sometimes Peter would, without meaning to, tarnished Edmund's small reputation by making some unjust decisions and of course people believed them to be Edmund's choices. Even though Peter was trying his best not to diminish Edmund, he still did at some points.

To the Glistening Eastern Sea, Queen Lucy the Valiant.

Lucy, despite her young age, was an extremely good ruler of Narnia. Young Queen Lucy was the one who went around the kingdom and made sure that people were always okay. She always listened to her peoples problems and tried her best to believe them or get something done about it and if the problem was big enough then she would take it too her family and get their help on it. However a lot of the time she was made to stay in Cair Paravel and rule Narnia from there. Mr Tumnus and the beavers kept her company when Susan was away or just not able to send time with her sister. However since the Battle of Beruna ended and there were the most important issues settled to bring peace for a moment, Susan would take Lucy, Mr Tumnus and the Beavers down to the river and they would just have some fun. Lucy never did lose her adventurous spirit and in the end Peter had to assign Mr Tumnus to follow her wherever she went. Lucy, of course, had no complaint to this. There were times when Peter would take er to war with him to have the access anf ull use of her cordial and Lucy would always be given Susan beautiful magical horn to carry with her in case she needed help at any point or if Peter needed more creatures to fight in his army.

And that was the day that many had chanted long live to the Kings and Queens of old and Narnia fell into a time of pure peace and love. If that peace was ever threatened though High King Peter, as he came to be known, would take an army with him and sort it out, leaving his older sister, Queen Susan, in charge of the Kingdom.

In some bigger battles, Peter would have taken his younger sister, the young Queen Lucy, with him to have acess to her cordial if they needed it for their army at any point. Even then he would leave Susan in charge and that was how things worked.

Then the four left one day, claimed by Mr Tumnus to have gone back to Spare Oom though the wardrobe that was by the lamp post, where Lucy had first met her very special faun friend. Every one understood and Narnia was lead by General Oreius, Mr Tumnus, Mr and Mrs Beaver and the rest of the royal council that the Kings and Queens had held, only allowing those that they trusted the most to be a member of it.

However great their rule was though, their were some in Narnia, that only saw Narnia's Golden Age being lead by three.

One son of Adam and two daughters of Eve.

And all of the time they had Narnia's best interested at heart, even when Peter rushed in to things, when Susan turned down every offer from some other man asking for her hand in marrage and when Lucy would go back to her child like ways and play hide and seek with Mr Tumnus and Mr and Mrs Beaver.

Edmund too had Narnia's best interests in his heart, yet people didn't see it that way and King Edmund continued to try and be Just, which of course he was, however those who hated him were spreading that feeling to others who had mixed feelings on the King.

Peter had made quite a few prints on Edmund's reputation throughout the couple years of winter when the King refused to step a foot out of his room.

Phillip, the chestnut horse that had taken Edmund into battles and taught him how to ride a horse, still stood by the King's side no matter what people believed or said about his young King that had grown to easily become someone that the horse was happy to call his friend.

Narnia grew to it's peaceful state with the help of High King Peter, who provided the battle side of things and most issues of court that he wouldn't let his brother handle, Queen Susan, who provided the gentleness to bring back peace to most parts of the kingdom and to keep it there managing to comfort any who needed it and Queen Lucy, who provided spirit and adventure to Narnia, while keeping her own balance of bravery and courage, however sometimes she would always wish to be more beautiful like her older sister

Edmund sat in his room, looking out of the window at the ground below him where his blonde brother was just a while ago.

Peter played rounders with his friends sometimes after the end of the school day. Edmund knew that he was meant to be doing his homework, but he couldn't concentrate. It was coming up to being a year, since they last went to Narnia and although Edmund missed Narnia, in a way he didn't want go back.

After all Narnia held a place for his siblings, it always had and it always will. But for Edmund, not matter what he had been told while he was in Narnia, he felt that it didn't hold a place for him, almost like it never actually had.

_'Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen. May your wisdom grace us until the stars rien down from the Heavens.'_

Everyone in Narnia remebered the words that Aslan had spoken to the Kings and Queens that day, even Edmund remembered it and everytime that he heard them repeated in his mind he was always lead back to the same thought.

Without the Gentle, the Magnificent and the Valiant, Narnia would fall apart, it didn't need the Just.

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><p>Okay, I will upload the next chapter either later on today or tomorrow as this is only the prologue.<p>

Please review and thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 1

Here's the first chapter a little later than promised though and I'm sorry for that.

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><p>Edmund blinked his eyes open, trying to remain asleep,but however much he tried his body wouldn't let him do so. Sadly he pulled the covers away from his body and sat up to look at the time on the clock that was beside his bed.<p>

Edmund sighed.

School didn't start for another hour.

But Edmund knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. He shot a glance over to his older brother, whom was still sleeping silently.

Despite Peter being three years older than him the pair shared a room and he had his mother to thank for that. She had spoken to the school's headmaster for ages when Edmund frst started going there and said that both of the brother's should be allowed to have a room together, after all they were family.

Edmund, despite what people usually saw of him as being cold natured, was actually thankful for this. It meant that he didn't have to share a room with someone who he didn't really know very well.

Reluctanly the black haired brother had already gotten dressed and ready for the whole school day, so he carefully got his chess set out and began to play with that on his own for a while. Not that you could really play chess on your own very well, but Edmund didn't care.

Ever since he had been to Narnia he had become so much better at chess than he had been before he had been to Narnia. Well he'd never been able to play chess beforehand, but he could beat every creature in Narnia by the time he was fourteen and now it was his way of passing the time that he had spare at any time.

Peter woke later at a normal time for people to wake up to be up in time for the start of the school day, yawning, the blonde shot Edmund a curious look wondering why he was sat on the floor playing chess and not laying in his bed asleep like he should be. It used to be Peter's job to wake his brother for the school day, however lately Edmund seemed to be getting up ealier and earlier and would always be found playing chess.

Peter wondered why he hadn't asked Edmund the reason for this yet and why he was still curiously wondering when he could know it all alreay. However Peter knew that Edmund might refuse to tell him, after all that was Edmund. Sometimes he wouldn't tell any of his siblings anything at all.

The blonde knew that he should be happy that Edmund was waking up earlier on his own, but it sadened him really to see his brother ready for school so early when he didn't need to be.

"Morning Ed." Peter said drawing himself out of his thoughts, standing and collecting his school uniform up from his wardrobe to use their shared bathroom.

"Morning." Edmund mumbled making another move on the chess board that Peter had no idea that you were even allowed to make in the game. Edmund had become such an excellanct chess player and Peter didn't even remember the time when it had happened. He assumed that it was sometime when they were in Narnia, as Edmund had never known how to play chess before then, no matter how much their father had tried to teach him.

Peter got dressed quickly before heading back to his brother who was still fiddling with the chess board that was infront of him. Peter was determinded to pull his brother away from that chess board today as the past few times he had gone to breakfast, Edmund had claimed to be right behind him and then never showed up.

But Peter wasn't going to have that today.

"Come on then, Ed, breakfast time." Peter said heading to the door, trying not to push his brohter to much as he didn't want to become like he had been before to his brother, overpowering and controlling, because he knew what that had caused.

It had nearly caused Edmund's death.

"Yeah, I'm coming down soon. I'll catch you up Pete." The younger brother replied moving another peice on his beloved chess board.

Oh no he didn't. Not today.

"Yeah well, you never do, so come on Edmund." Peter spoke again as he walked over to his brother and pulled his brother up from the ground and carefully lead him towards the shut door.

When Peter stopped to open the door, Edmund tried to duck underneath him his arms slightly, however Peter managed to grab a hold of him and pull him back, opening the door and pushing his brother out into the corridor, before pulling the door shut and in turn locking it, knowing that his brother didn't have his set of keys on him.

"Peter!" Edmund wined slightly as his blonde brother, refused to let him anywhere near the door.

"You have to choice's Edmund, walk or I'll lead you down there."

"I'll walk." Edmund mumbled sadly in relpy to his brother's question not very happy about Peter's set of choices for him to chose from as he began walking down the corridors.

Edmund didn't really like eating breakfast and he liked it less eating with his brother sometimes. Don't get the wrong idea, Edmund really loved his brother and they had become so much closer since being at the professor's, but Edmund's few friends wouldn't sit with him at breakfast, becasue they were all scared of Peter who didn't have the best reputation.

Peter was known to be violent when he was angry or if someone had upset him. Which is why Edmund never really saw much of the few friends that he had, because of this.

His brother's friends soon arrived to join his brother, all of them being his brothers friends were older than Edmund was. Whenever Edmund did come to breakfast with his brother he would always try to become unnoticeable and slip out of place to hopefully be ignored. One of Peter's friends, the youngest of them, would usually speak to Edmund, however Edmund really didn't want to be spoken to at the moment.

Edmund was picking slightly at his food, not really wanting to eat it. Peter would look over too his brother from time to time and the rest of the time he would be talking and laughing with his friends, while Edmund tried to make himself unnoticeale to the older boys.

Managing to make his timing perfect Edmund found that he was able to slip away, picking the keys out of his brothers jacket pocket.

Peter didn't notice his brother disappearence until minutes later when it was pointed out by his friend William.

"Peter," The boy started, "Wasn't your brother here a moment ago?" He asked.

"Yeah he's still here though. He's right next to me, right Ed?" Peter asked his brother, however he didn't get a reply and realised that William was right.

It didn't surprise Peter that William had noticed his brothers disappearence. William was the youngest boy in Peter's year and the youngest boy that was in Peter's friendship group. As well as this William was quite good friends with Edmund and a while ago, the two would talk at breakfast, however now Edmund only spoke to Peter and that was only when it was forced or Edmund seemed to be happy.

But William was right. Edmund wasn't here anymore and at a first guess Peter thought that he knew where Edmund had gone.

Especially when he couldn't feel the set of keys to their shared room in his pocket.

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><p>"Ed! Open this door! Ed!" Peter called, banging on the door with his fist. He had been stood outside now for three minutes banging on the door and Peter was glad that everyone was at breakfast, so no one was able to see him looking like a fool, being locked out of his own room.<p>

"Ed!" Peter shouted again.

"Yeah." Edmund mumbled as he walked down the corridor toward Peter.

"Edmund, where were you?" Peter asked, his tone became slightly harsh as he spoke.

"Outside alright Peter? No need to become who you were before." Peter knew that Edmund was right.

"Okay, but could you open this door?"

"Here." Edmund chucked the keys to his older brother who caught them before moving to unlock the door, walking inside with Edmund following him in. The younger of the brothers shut the door behind him before grabbing his bag from by the door Peter doing the same.

The pair walked silently to their lessons that day, trying to silently repair the bond that they had frayed slightly this morning.

Edmund's day rushed through Geography, science and maths. It then came to lunch and Edmund knew that after that he had p.e. not that he would be taking part in it today.

Peter sat through English, Geography and music, most of it all bored him and he wished that he could just see Edmund again. He would also be seeing his sisters soon as they all had a day off coming up and the fur had planned to send it together, well that is if Edmund was in a better sort of mood than he had been for the past few weeks.

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><p>Susan had just finished her art lesson and was now in her free lesson, In art she wasn't exactly doing what she was supposed to be doing and was working on the same thing that she was working on now. In art she was actually meant to be drawing a picture from the image that they all had infront of them in the lesson, however she was acually drawing a different picture.<p>

The picture had a bright sun in it and a beautiful clear blue sky that had no puffy, white clouds in sight. The trees were a beautiful glowing, emerald green and the grass was a lighter green, with many different shades of colours of leaves scattered over the top.

It had so far taken Susan ages to draw and then to begin painting it and the girl had been working on the picture for her past two art lessons and had also been using her past two free lessons to work on it, for she was sure that she could finish it soon if she focused and worked hard enough on it.

She had painted three of the four drawn out shapes so far. One was painted black and two were painted a brown colour that was meant to look it's best like a bay colour. The one that she was painting now was meant to be a chestnut colour or as close as she could get to the colour.

But then there was still the rest of the faintly drawn out picture to paint colours in to.

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><p>Lucy was sat in her maths lesson looking down at the desk drawing, wishing that she could be in a free lesson like Susan was. After all the youngest Pevensie didn't understand fractions and Susan usually helped her with the homework that she got for the subject and even then she still didn't understand it.<p>

Lucy thought her sister lucky. Art was a talent of Susan's and not only did she have her art lesson before lunch, but also her free lesson, so when Susan finished her art lesson she could still work on her art work. Although Lucy hadn't actually seen the piece that Susan was working on at the moment she was sure that it was great.

There was no one who had seen the work of her sister, however Lucy had seen many of Susan's friends pieces and she knew Susan's would be better, although she was well aware that Susan had complained so much about what it was that they had to paint.

Lucy wasn't as good at art as her sister, but she was still quite good. Many of her and Susan's friends had comented on their art work in the past and they had both had the schools art teacher asking them how they managed to get so good at something that was such a hard thing for some people.

The younger of the sisters was currently drawing a golden lion, well part of it anyway. At the moment it was only a head and front legs of a lion. Many would forget the exact feautures of such an aminal, however Lucy's were exact to the point of pefect. Many of her friends asked her how she managed to do it without ever seeing a living lion in her life, but Lucy knew that she knew this lion well enough to draw it from memory.

When the lesson ended and it become lunch, Lucy cheered with joy inside and left the room in a hurry to meet Susan, desperate to plan what they were all going to so when they saw Peter and Edmund for the day that they had off of school.

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><p>He walked quickly, but that obviously wasn't quick enough. He ran faster than ever before, but even that wasn't fast enough. He tried to keep going when his legs screamed for him to stop, but he lost that battle. Stopping to gain his breath, making a huge mistake in doing so.<p>

They caught up to him, after all they were and always would be faster. He tried to get away from them, but they were a group of four and were stronger than him. They were all in the same year, but that really didn't seem to matter at all. The leader of the group was first to make any form of advance on the boy.

He started beating the boy harshly, his three friends eventually jumping in to the event as well. This had been going on for the past few weeks and as instructed he had said and done nothing.

Edmund knew that he had done nothing to provoke them, so why they were doing this he didn't know.

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><p>Sorry this is later than promised, I will upload the next chapter quicker this time.<p>

Please review and thanks for reading.

Thank you so much to those who have reviewed already and those who have favourited and alerted this story :)


	3. Chapter 2

Sorry for the late update once again. I'm really busy at the moment helping my family to sort out things for christmas like a tree and of course presents, so this chapter might be a bit shorter and so my updates are a lot less frequent at the moment which I am so sorry about, but I will somehow make it up to you all. Okay on to the next chapter :)

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><p>Edmund was laying on his bed when Peter walked in late that evening. Edmund hadn't gone to his p.e. class today and nor had he gone to dinner that night, however that wasn't really all that unusual these days for the young Pevensie.<p>

Peter had been to dinner and had been outside with his friends once again playing rounders like he usually did for three days of the school evenings. When Peter walked in whatever he was going to say must have gotten caught in his throat for Edmund heard no words come out of his brothers mouth.

The black haired brother looked away from the blonde, whishing that he had been more careful with watching what time it was and watching Peter, for he knew that his brother came back into their room at this time, so he should have known to be ready for that time.

But he wasn't.

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><p>Susan and Lucy sat in their room. Lucy was still working on her drawing of Aslan and Susan on her homework for maths as well as helping Lucy with her maths homework every once in a while when she wasn't busy working on her beloved picture of the golden, friendly lion.<p>

"Susan," Lucy started, her sister looking up at her from the work that she was doing, "Do you think that we'll ever return to Narnia again?"

"I don't know Lucy." Susan replied.

"Do you think that we'll see Aslan again?"

"Do you?" Susan asked her younger sister in reply.

"I hope so." Lucy looked sadly down at her half finished picture, "He was so friendly and helpful. He wasn't going to let us die at the White Witch's hands was he?" Lucy asked, but she knew that Susan wouldn't answer the question, Lucy had meant for it to have no spoken answer, because they both knew the answe to that.

"He was, wasn't he." Susan gave her sister a small smile, "Even when she killed him, he still cared for us and helped us in any way that he could. He saved Edmund, then Peter, but he never really saved us did he?"

"I guess not." Lucy replied. When she thought about it, Susan was right. Aslan had saved Edmund from the White Witch, twice in fact, even when the price he had to pay was death and then he had saved Peter from the White Witch on the battlefield at Beruna. After that battle the four siblings had become Kings and Queens of Narnia.

And the professor had believed all of it.

Then they had to go back to their seperate schools. Lucy looked back down at her drawing and Susan looked back down at her maths work. The two girls sat in a horrible and uncomfortable silence, neither of them speaking a single word, because neither of them needed too.

As they had already said enough.

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><p>Peter couldn't say anything as he walked in the door even though he had planned to say something. Edmund was just laying on his bed, some of his school books surrounded him, however he wasn't using them.<p>

Edmund looked a complete mess. He had changed out of his school uniform, so he was wearing his own clothes and Peter could easily see the blood still running from Edmunds lip. The blonde moved closer to his brother, dropping his bag as he walked. Edmund picked up one of the books that surrounded him and Peter quessed that he was trying to make it look like he was doing something, so that his older brother wouldn't disturb him.

But Peter wasn't a fool.

Peter grabbed the book, removing it from Edmund's line of sight, so that he could see him clearly. Edmunds lip was bleeding, he had bruises all over his collar bone and the lower parts of his arms as well as a few on his cheeks. Peter couldn't see any of the other possible that his brother may have through the clothes, but he didn't really need to.

"What happened?" Peter asked almost desperately. Edmund didn't seem like he was going to reply for a moment, but Peter knew his brother well enough to wait in silence for a moment. Eventually the younger of the pair looked up.

"Nothing." Edmund said, stealing his book back from the blonde before going silent again. Peter was confused, however he wasn't will to give up that easily.

"Well something happened to you Edmund! You haven't been yourself lately. You've been quieter and more melnacholy than you usually are. I'm your brother you can tell me anything, so that means that you can tell me what's happened!"

"I can't tell you."

"You can tell me. And I can help you if I need to." Peter replied.

"No, Peter. I really can't tell you." The younger replied.

"Well why not, Edmund?" Edmund was still just as silent as he was earlier. Peter spoke again, "Look Edmund just tell me it's not like-"

"No, Peter it's not like I'm going to be in trouble if I tell you is it! Look I know you're just trying to help, but you're really not, so why don't you just stop asking!" Emund jumped up from his bed, throwing his book down and leaving the room. Leaving his blonde older brother in more confusion than he had been in to start with.

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><p>Susan lay looking up at the ceiling. One more day. All they had was one more day and then the four siblings could all spend a day together and after that it was only a matter of a few more days before they had their holidays. Not that the children knew what they were doing with their holiday yet or as to where they were going to stay, but it would probably in school, as their mother had said to them that she couldn't have them back for the summer.<p>

Lucy was considering, spending the summer with her best friend Rachel, however even if Lucy chose to do that it would still leave Susan, Peter and Edmund stuck at school.

Susan was finding that she just couldn't manage to get herself to sleep tonight. She didn't know why, but it almost felt like it had something to do with someone close to her. While she was awake her mind drifted back to when they had all ruled Narnia. Eventually, with Narnia filling her mind, she managed to fall into a light sleep, but that didn't matter for she had no need to sleep for a long amount of time. She would be awake again when the sun rose in a few short hours.

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><p>When Peter woke up in the morning there was no sign of Edmund having returned during the night while the blonde was sleeping. Peter got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast as normal and yet still he found no sign of Edmund. He even asked his friends and they to had seen nothing of the Pevensie's black haired and pale skined younger brother.<p>

Peter's day at school was terrible, but when he returned to his room, he found Edmund there, lying on his bed. Before Peter could even say anything that he wanted to he realised that his younger brother was asleep, so he left it for the time being.

The next morning when Peter woke up he found Edmund already awake and when he was ready they both set out to meet their sisters, neither of them spoke for the entire journey to their sisters school and Peter hoped that seeing Lucy and Susan would make Edmund at least speak to them again for a start.

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><p>Sorry for the length of this chapter, but as I said earlier I will make it up to you. Also sorry if this chapter seems boring, but it's needed for the next one.<p>

Thanks for reviewing, please review and thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 3

Alright here's the next chapter. I made it longer since the last one was quite short.

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><p>Lucy was woken up that morning by Susan, who was already dressed and had her hair shorted out. It was only when Lucy had blinked a few times that she noticed that Susan wasn't wearing her school uniform, but her own clothes. That was when the youngest Pevensie remembered that they all had a day off and that they had already planned to spend it as a family.<p>

Lucy sat up in bed and looked at her older sister. With a yawn she asked, "What time is it?"

Susan chuckled before going back to focussing on the matter at hand, "About time that you got up." Lucy chuckled back in reply before pulling the covers off of her and picking up her clothes that she had chosen to wear for the day that was ahead of her.

When she entered the bathroom she locked the door before calling out to her sister who was briefly finishing doing the final adjustments to her hair, before picking up a book to read for a little while. "Susan!" Susan made a sound of acknowledgement that sound to Lucy like a _'hmm' _sound, "How long until we meet up with Peter and Edmund?"

Susan looked at the clock that was on the desk beside her bed before looking back to her book, "Quarter of an hour." She answered her sister.

"Okay." Lucy called back.

Susan went back to reading her book for the five minutes that Lucy spent getting ready before she asked her older sister for help with her hair. Susan marked the page in her book before moving to help her sister.

Ten minutes later the two sisters left their room and began to walk through the corridors. The corridors were quiet this morning and so the two sisters weren't delayed in their journey to meet up with their brothers.

Most people were still sleeping at this time in the morning on their day off of school. Especially with their holidays coming up in a few days.

Susan was still puzzling over what they would do for the summer holidays. Becuase she knew that neither she nor Lucy wanted to spend their holidays in school and they were both sure that Peter and Edmund didn't want to either.

It wasn't to bad for Lucy though, for she had the option to spend summer with her friend Rachel, but Susan doubted that she would accept her friends offer.

The two sisters didn't have to go far, just to the gates of their school as Peter and Edmund had thought that safer for the two girls.

When they reached the gate Edmund and Peter were already stood there waiting. But what surprised Susan and Lucy was that neither one of them was speaking to the other.

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><p>Edmund and Peter walked over to the gate of their sisters school in silence. Just as they left the gates of their school, Peter looked down and noticed that Edmund was limping slightly. At first he wasn't going to say anything, but in the end he couldn't help himself.<p>

"Edmund why are you-" Edmund looked up at Peter causing his brother to pause in the middle of his sentence, "Don't worry about it." The blond finished his sentence, not how he wanted to, but it worked to at least keep Edmund away from anger. Not that the two had actually propably spoken again yet.

Peter and Edmund waited for a few minutes before Susan and Lucy appeared at the gates and unlike the two brothers, they were smiling, talking, laughing and just looking generally happy. Just like sisters, and brothers, should be.

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><p>When Lucy saw her brothers she ran over to them in a hurry, pulling them both into a huge hug. Edmund winced ever so slightly as Lucy wrapped her small arms around his ribs. Peter, who was too happy at seeing Lucy again didnt notice his brothers pain and nor did Lucy as she burried her head into her brother, removing her arms from around Edmund's body.<p>

The black haired Pevensie placed an arm over his ribs as Peter and Lucy continued to hug. Edmund looked up to see Susan looking over at him, concern written on her face, so the youngest Pevensie bother removed his arm from around his ribs and placed it back at his side.

Susan made her way over to her siblings and smiled at Edmund choosing to place a gentle hand on his shouder and give him a radient smile instead of a hug, however she did hug her blond, older brother.

"Right let's getting going," Peter said taking control of the situation, "We have a train that leaves in half an hour." They all left and as they began walking Susan noticed that Edmund was favouring one leg.

The four siblings set off to the train station. Even though it only took them twenty minutes to get there, they all though it better to get there earlier than later. After waiting for about ten minutes their train arrived in the station and the four siblings clambered onto it and sat down.

The children were headed into town and the early morning train was pretty much an empty shell of metal. Te only real people on it, were the people who, like them, had chosen to go into town early, business people and those who had jobs to go to. Most of the other people on the train were adults, but were the Pevensie's had seated themselves was in a pretty much empty section of the train.

Lucy got hungry half way through the journey, claiming that she hadn't had any breakest and would like to get something to eat, so Peter took her to do just that which left only Susan and Edmund.

The oldest Pevensie sister had no clue as how she was meant to start a conversation with Edmund on the subject that she wanted to and in the end Susan left it completely when Peter and Lucy returned, the youngest of them all now eating an apple.

A little while later the siblings arrived at the station the four clambered off of the train and out on to the station platform (the tiles that formed the word _STRAND_ were in front of them.) Without hestitation they all quickly made their way out of the busy station as people rushed to catch their train, Peter grasping Lucy's hand as the youngest still hadn't figured out her way around stations, especially busy stations.

To Susan's surprise she soon felt a hand grab onto her arm. As she turned her head she saw that Edmund was now walking beside her, his hand clinging onto her arm as they walked. Susan couldn't help but smile slightly at the act, but when they were out of the station and into the light of day again, Susan felt Edmund's hand quickly slide off of her arm.

Edmund sighed as Lucy began to drag Peter twoards some shops, Susan following interested in what shop her younger sister was heading for. Edmund could only sigh as he knew that this meant that a full day of shopping was ahead of them all.

After the four had gotten themselves some lunch they began shopping again or rather Lucy and Susan began shopping again, while Peter followed happily while Edmund followed without any form of interest.

Lucy was busy trying on shoes now and Susan was helping her to choose colours and size. Peter had gone off long ago to look at the sports section which just left Edmund sitting alone doing nothing. Out of pure boredom Edmund decided to have a look around. He wasn't planning to go anywhere in particular and decided to stay on the same floor that his sisters were on.

As he walked around Edmund felt someone knock, quite forcefully, in to the right side of his body. The black haired Pevensie brother turned around and although he could only see the back of them as they wallked away, he could be sure that it was them.

The four that had caused this pain.

Edmund shivered as he decided to turn around and start walking back to where his sisters were, still, trying on shoes. Peter returned ten minutes later and the four left the shop and for the rest of the day that they were shopping Edmund was looking around to see if he could see the four boys once again.

It was only just nearing the time of it getting dark when the siblings caught their train back to school. Peter was carring a lot of bags by now and Edmund too was carring some, although it was doing him no good, but he was not going to tell his siblings what had happened, so he left it and agreed to carry the bags.

Susan too carried some of her own shopping, but Lucy carried none as Peter said that she shouldn't have to carry heavy bags back to her room at school.

The train journey back was just as boring as the one to the shops was. Lucy kept trying to play eye spy (not that there was really anything to spy.) When they reached the station by their schools Edmund couldn't be happier or sader, depending on how you looked at it.

Happy, because that meant no more shopping and being dragged around like a dog on a rope.

Sad, because that meant that his day with his family was over and he had school tomorrow.

Peter and Edmund said goodbye to Susan and Lucy when they reached the gate of their sisters school before they both headed back into their own school and back to their own room. It was completely dark outside by now and Edmund was lying on his bed trying to do some homework that he needed for tomorrow.

Edmund had fallen asleep by the time that Peter was ready to go to sleep. His homework wasn't done, but Edmund didn't care.

* * *

><p>The next morning when Edmund woke up, Peter was no where to be seen. When Edmund checked the time he realised why. It was a Thursday morning and every Thursday morning his older brother played sports with his friends before breakfast.<p>

Edmund smiled slightly at Peter not being here as it meant that he didn't have to hide anything from his older brother.

At lunch time, Peter and Edmund sat down with Peter's friends who were all desperate to tell Peter what they had done yesterday. Edmund really wasn't interested in what they were saying though. Surprisingly nor was William. He was just sat there acting like he was listening when really he actually wasn't.

Edmund sneaked out of the hall again, after all he had always been good at escaping from things since when he and Peter had played games when he was a lot younger. Let's say that it was a skill of his.

However this time, someone did see him leave. A friend of Peter's, the one who wasn't listening to the stories that his friends were telling. William.

And what Edmund didn't know was that william had seen the trail of blood that was running down the boys right arm and wrist.

* * *

><p>Susan Pevensie stood at her schools reception desk speaking on one of their phones. Well listening was more like it.<p>

"Thank you so much, we'll be there." Susan replied.

Finally after being stood there for four minutes on the phone, she was finally able to put it down, much to the relief of the receptionist who just generally hated the Pevensies. And even though it was only Susan and Lucy who went to this school and the woman hardly knew Peter and Edmund, she still acted like she hated them.

Susan placed the phone down and walked away, after saying thank you to the receptionist. The school day was just about over, so Susan returned to her and Lucy's shared room. Her younger sister walked in the door a few minutes later with a smile on her face and when she saw the smile that was on her sisters face she couldn't help, but smile that little bit more.

If it was possible she smiled even more when she was told by Susan what the oldest Pevensie sister had been told on the phone. Her sister left the room and the school claiming that she had to tell Edmund and Peter of this new arrangment in person instead of over the phone.

When Susan entered through the gates of Peter and Edmund's school she was instantly able to spot her older and blonde haired brother. And he didn't look happy.

"Peter what's wrong?" She asked, but Peter just ignored her walking right past her as if she wasn't even there. Susan chose not to dwell on the action and instead continued on towards the room that Peter shared with her younger brother, Edmund.

On the way she ran into Peter's friend William, who was just leaving his room that was only a few doors down the corridor from her brothers. The too nearly ran, or walked, head first into each other.

"Oh, sorry William." Susan said as she took a step back, moved to go out around him and continue walking, but her older brothers friend grabbed her arm and gained her attention once again.

"Susan, are you going to see Edmund?" He asked.

"Yeah why? Is something wrong?"

"You could say that yes." He replied solemly.

"Oh, well what is it? What's wrong with him?" Susan asked her older brothers friend, who it seemed was actually quite worried about her younger brother. When Willia didn't say anything, Susan pressed on to the issue again, "William, what's wrong with Edmund?"

"Susan, I don't quite know how I can say this to you in a way that's the ur, the nicest way possible."

"William, if you don't know how to tell me this in the nicest way possible than that means that there probably isn't one."

"Well, going on from what I've seen, I don't think Edmund's eaten anything, he seems to look more pale and more ill each time I see him, strangely it looks like he's limping and earlier this morning I saw that his arm was bleeding." William actually seemed to be in quite a state about Edmund and his health.

Susan began to walk down the corridor again and this time she wasn't stopped by William and was able to continue on down the hall. She stopped outside of Peter and Edmund's room and breathed in the biggest breath that she could fill her lungs with before hestitantly reaching out a slightly shaking hand towards the door, before she knocked loudly three times on the outside of the door.

Now all she had to do was wait for an answer.

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><p>Okay, sorry that it's later than promised, but I should have the next chapter of I'm not Holding your Hand up by tomorrow evening or Saturday morning.<p>

I will hope to update this at a similar time as well as post the first chapter of my new story.

Thanks for reviewing, please review and thanks for reading.

Thanks for reviewing, please review and thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 4

Alright, chapter four for you all at long last.

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><p>Susan waited in the corridor for a moment before Edmund answered the door. She gave him a smile and he returned it before stepping back a bit to allow her the room to walk in the room. Susan entered and Edmund shut the door behind her.<p>

Edmund walked over and sat down on his bed, grabbing one of his text books that were laid across it before looking up at Susan for an explanation.

"So is something wrong?" He asked. Susan looked at her brother and understood what William had meant. Edmund did look pale and if he hadn't eaten anything then that would make him even more ill. Although she couldn't see his arm as he was wearing a long sleeved shirt and she wasn't about to ask him to show her.

"No I just wanted to check that you were alright and to tell you that over the holidays we'll be staying with the professor again. He rang my school and spoke to me. He said that he would love to have us all back for a while."

"That's great," Edmund replied, "Have you told Peter yet?"

"No I went to tell him, but he walked straight passed me. Do you know where he was heading?"

"Not exactly, but if he seemed unhappy then he was most likely going to play rounder's. He and his friends were talking about it earlier. I don't know why, but they just decided to. Also I don't think Peter was very happy about having to stay in school for the holidays, he doesn't know what you have just told me."

"Oh well I had best go find him and leave you to your work," Susan stood up and made her way to the door, she opened it, but then turned around to face her younger brother, "You are alright though, right Edmund?"

"Yeah." The youngest Pevensie brother replied without even lifting his head up from the book. Susan slipped out of the door and shut it behind her. As she walked along the corridor, William came out of his room.

"William, do you know where Peter is?" She asked.

"Yeah I was just heading over to play rounder's with him. Did you manage to speak to Edmund?"

"He seems pale, but he always has been naturally pale and I couldn't see whether his arm was bleeding or not."

"I'm sure it was earlier," William muttered to himself before looking to Susan, "So what are you doing for the holidays?"

* * *

><p>Edmund was – in all truth – glad that Peter had decided to play rounder's with his friends that night. He wasn't feeling very well and could barely even be bothered to do the work that was in front of him.<p>

He would probably try and get as much sleep as he possibly could later and be asleep by the time that Peter returned if he could manage that (which he was sure that he could.)

The youngest Pevensie brother spent most of the evening lying on the bed as it was more comfortable for his right ankle if he did that. He had managed to hold up an appearance that he was fine lately, however sometimes his balance would threaten to slip and he would have to change back to limping slightly for a while.

But then he could go back to faking for a while and no one seemed to know the difference. Although Edmund suggested that Peter was getting closer to realising the truth. He managed to do some of the homework before he simply felt too tired to do the rest, so he allowed himself to sleep for a while, although he didn't wake up again until the morning.

* * *

><p>Peter watched as Susan made her way up to him. He and his friends and been getting ready to start their first game of rounder's they were only waiting for William. Susan seemed to get the looks from most of his friends before she pulled him away from the group with him saying that he would only be a second.<p>

"What is it Susan?" He asked as his younger sister let go of his arm and stopped dragging him.

"We are staying with the Professor again for the holidays. He rang me earlier and said that he would be more than glad for us to stay with him."

"That's great at least we won't be stuck here. Have you told Edmund?"

"Yes, I tried to tell you earlier, but you ignored me."

"Sorry I was a bit annoyed that it seemed like we would be staying at school."

"Well we're not now, so cheer up will you," Peter smiled as if to show that he had cheered up bit, "Will you keep an eye on Edmund for me until we break up for the holidays. I don't think he's very well."

"Of course I will, he's my brother." Peter replied.

"Thanks. Well Lucy and I will see you both the day after tomorrow then." The pair hugged before Susan left and Peter returned to play rounder's although after two games he decided to quit early and return to his and Edmund's room.

When he opened the door he looked around for Edmund, but he didn't have to look too far as his younger brother was asleep on his bed, surrounded by his school books.

Peter sighed as he pushed the door shut and made his way over his brother's bed. As carefully and quietly as he could, the oldest Pevensie sibling began to move the books from where they had been laying on the bed. Any of the books that were lying on the bed open, he bookmarked for Edmund to know where he had gotten to later when he was awake again.

As much as he wanted to move him, Peter didn't want to risk waking him, so he left the boy where he was and instead tried to do some of his own work before he too slept, knowing that he had to wake up in the morning for school.

* * *

><p>Susan had continued to work on her homework for a while until it was finish before she began to pack things that she would want and need to take with her to the Professors.<p>

She took changes of clothes as well as all of her text books that she would need to work with and then on top of that she also added her current work in progress that she had been working on in her art and her free lessons.

After a while she began to pack for Lucy as well knowing in her mind the sort of things that her younger sister would want to take with her and all the while she did this while Lucy worked on her final piece of homework for tomorrow.

As it became dark, she decided to go to bed earlier than usual and Lucy followed a similar sort of schedule.

* * *

><p>Lucy rolled over and breathed deeply before she opened her eyes. The covers were pulled around her, but she didn't feel at all cold even though it wasn't always warm at night. Sometimes she wished that her nightdress could be one of her Narnian dresses from their Golden Age back there.<p>

For some strange reason they just felt a lot more comfortable to her and they were a lot prettier as well.

The youngest Pevensie sibling reached out a hand to the piece of paper that lay on her bedside table. Her drawing of Aslan was only one of the drawings on the piece of paper. Alongside it was a drawing of her beloved faun friend Mr Tumnus, Mr and Mrs Beaver, General Oreius and some of the other Narnians that they had the honour of knowing.

She placed the paper back down and rolled over onto her back again, looking up at the ceiling remembering the nights that she had laid on the grass and looked up upon the stars. Lucy usually slept well, the only times that she didn't sleep well was when there was something, something ominous.

That night, she didn't sleep well at all.

* * *

><p>Edmund woke up in the morning with a slightly stiff ankle and a stomach ache. His head felt slightly funny, but he pushed it off as nothing for the time being. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, however as he did some form of strange feeling hit him, like a wave of dizziness.<p>

His fingers went all funny and even when he flexed them, they wouldn't move the ways he wanted to, his vision swam slightly and his balanced wobbled onto one side, causing him to have to sit back down on the edge of his bed before he fell over and risked waking Peter up from the noise.

He was sat there for about five minutes before he tried standing up again. The same thing happened again on a lesser scale and he forced himself to stay on his feet this time, moving over to the wall and leaning against it for a second before he grabbed his books that Peter had moved and placed them back where he actually kept them.

Although he did note that Peter had book marked the pages.

He was sat on his bed a few minutes later and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep again and wasn't woken until after Peter had woken up at a more normal time for people to wake up to go to school.

* * *

><p>Peter yawned as he woke up and sat up a moment later, looking to the space of floor that was directly in front of his bed, expecting to see his younger brother, Edmund sat there (as per usual of late) playing chess.<p>

However this morning that wasn't the case and he was surprised to not see Edmund sat there, but lying in bed like he had been last night. The oldest Pevensie child moved around the room as quietly as he could while he got dressed and ready for the school day.

When he was ready to go to breakfast he attempted to wake Edmund up, but had no such luck. He sighed and in the end he left the room to go to breakfast deciding that he would bring something up to Edmund later when he may be a bit more awake.

Considering how early his younger brother had been waking up lately, Peter wasn't surprised that he was sleeping now. However if Peter had stayed a little longer, he would have noticed Edmund wake up.

"No Edmund this morning?" Asked one of Peter's friends as he sat down.

"No, he's sleeping. He's tired, he is waking up too early as of late, so it's taken its toll on him now I think."

"Are you sure that he's not ill?" William asked from across the table almost worriedly.

"I don't think he's ill, he just looked like he was sleeping to me."

"Yeah, but some people don't look ill when there sleeping." William replied and Peter thought (in all fairness) that he was right.

"That's why people die so easily you don't realise that they are dying in their sleep, because it doesn't look like your typical death does it, not like being stabbed." One of them commented and Peter was on his feet moments later and already leaving the room, the group changing conversation.

"I can't believe this is the last day of school before the holidays." Peter walked away as quickly as he could, dashing back up to his and Edmund's room. He moved to open the door, turning the handle and pushing the door inwards, but the door only moved slightly and remained closed.

He put his hands in his pockets and searched them for his keys although to his dismay he couldn't find them and that was when he realised that he had left them in his room. He would have thought though that Edmund may have opened the door when he had tried and failed to do so.

That was when Peter really did worry and although it seemed unlikely that Edmund would die in his sleep or be ill, both were possible, the latter more so than the first.

He knocked on the door and leaned against it, "Edmund, can you let me in, I left my keys behind." He waited a moment and received no answer, so he called out again.

"Edmund, can you hear me?" His knocking then turned into banging, "Edmund, answer me!"

He placed an ear against the door only to hear no sound coming from inside the room. Peter did wonder as to whether Edmund had left the room, however he thought that to be highly unlikely considering that he had only been gone about ten minutes most and that Edmund had been so deep in sleep.

Of course he could still be asleep, although usually Edmund was a light sleeper, so Peter was becoming quite a bit more than worried.

"Edmund!" He was shouting now, "Open the door or I'll have to find a way to open it myself from our here." He still received no answer from his younger brother and wondered whether he could just break this door in like he had done in Narnia sometimes, but in the end he decided on a slightly more civilised approach and found something that he could use to pick the lock.

It might also worry Edmund less (if nothing is wrong with him) if he just picked the lock rather than pushed the whole door in. It took him a moment, but he managed to pick the lock and open the door.

He rushed in and called his brother's name. Edmund was lying on the floor (which solved one worry, but not another) and when Peter got closer he found that his younger brother was unconscious. Peter moved his brother, so that his head was resting against him, making it more comfortable for his younger brother before he attempted to wake him up.

Edmund muttered something that Peter couldn't hear, but he saw that as a good sign.

"Hey, Ed, Ed wake up!"

"Peter, go away."

"Not until you wake up." Peter replied, firmly.

"Fine I'm awake," Edmund told his brother as he opened eyes and looked up at him, "Now can I go back to sleep?"

"Well sure if you want to sleep on the floor." Once Peter had finished speaking, Edmund looked around and realised that he was on the floor. He remembered having woken up about seven minutes ago, but he didn't actually remember getting out of bed or falling to the floor, however he did know that his ankle was hurting a lot, so he imagined that it might have given way on him.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Peter paused for a second, "Edmund are you feeling well?"

"Yes, why do you ask Peter?"

"Just something I thought of."

"Well I'm fine." Edmund moved away from Peter and pulled himself to his feet before sitting down on the end of his bed. Peter moved over and shut the door to their room before pulling out one of his travel bags. Edmund looked at him curiously before voicing his confusion.

"What are you doing, Peter?"

"Packing our bags for the holidays, so we are ready to leave tomorrow to go to the Professors for the holiday."

"But we have school to go to."

"Forget school, you're tired."

"I'm not tired, Peter." Edmund insisted, but Peter could see otherwise and he thought that Edmund could see that as well.

"We have a lot of travelling to do tomorrow, so just rest," Edmund seemed to be almost scowling at him, so Peter added a simple, "Please."

His younger brother sighed, but eventually seemed to do what he was told and slept through most of the day while Peter went about packing things that they would need. When he was packing Edmund's school books, he couldn't help but take a quick look.

The boys History book was amazing as it seemed that he had learned the most that he could in the amount of lessons that he had had. His English book was of a similar standard and his writing was so much better than it had ever been before they went to Narnia. His Science was the same as ever and his Maths was well above what Peter could achieve.

Peter packed those before having the sense to pack Edmund a few books to read as well, since it had recently become a hobby and pass time of Edmund to read and was no longer such an unusual sight and Peter thanked Narnia for showing his younger brother that.

* * *

><p>Edmund slept relatively undisturbed all day, waking a few times or being woken by Peter a few times when he asked for Edmund's opinion or choice on something that he wanted to take with him. But apart from those times he slept better than he seemed to have for most nights as of late.<p>

Although at two o clock the next morning he was woken by himself coughing and spluttering like he hadn't done in years, although he managed to fall asleep again only to have himself and Peter awoken by the same sound the next morning.

* * *

><p>Okay I will try to update this again in the week, but if not my next update will be on Saturday. I also hope to update I'm not Holding your Hand later on tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for alerting, favouriting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	6. Chapter 5

Alright the next chapter as promised and I hope that you like it.

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><p>Peter was awoken by the sound of coughing and spluttering by none other than Edmund. At first he didn't realise that it was Edmund – although he had taken a guess that it was – and had looked around the room slightly confused.<p>

His said brother was sat up in bed, coughing like he had just inhaled all of the dust from a desert in one go. Peter pulled the bed covers back and stood himself up before making his way over to Edmund and even in the early morning light he could see that Edmund had become so much more pale than he had been yesterday if that was even possible.

And Peter wasn't even sure if it was.

"You alright, Ed?" He asked as he sat down on the bed beside his brother and rubbed his back.

"I'm fine." Edmund replied as he tried to move out of Peter's way, but his older brother saw that coming and shuffled over slightly to block his movements without stopping the hand that was rubbing his brothers back while he coughed.

Eventually Edmund did stop coughing, but Peter wasn't convinced that he would remain that way.

"What was wrong back there then?" He asked once his brother actually had some breath to speak to him with.

"I don't know," He told Peter and for the first time in the past few weeks it really was the full truth, "I just woke up coughing like that and that was it. I don't know any more than you do." The only lie in there was that Edmund didn't tell Peter that the same fit of coughing had woken him up in the extremely early hours of the morning.

Although Edmund thought that since Peter didn't know that he didn't really need to know.

"Well I'm going to get about another hours sleep if that's alright with you and I think that you should as well. I'll wake you up afterwards and we can go and catch the train, okay?"

"Yeah." Edmund replied, although he must have sounded uncertain as Peter gave him a curious look.

"Are you sure that you're alright with that?" He asked, "I can stay up with you if you don't feel well or feel like going back to sleep, that's not a problem."

"No, going to sleeps fine," Edmund told him before laying back down and pulling his covers up around him, "I would say goodnight, but it's not exactly night is it."

Peter gave his brother a small smile before heading back to bed and doing the same thing. He was asleep again a few minutes later, but Edmund wasn't and the younger of the Pevensie brothers spent his time staring at the wall with his back facing Peter just in case he woke up and wondered why his younger brother was staring at the wall or the ceiling.

As Peter had said he did wake Edmund up later, although he never seemed to notice that Edmund's sleeping had been faked.

* * *

><p>When Susan woke Lucy up, the youngest of the sisters noticed that Susan was already ready to go and had some of her art stuff lying on her bed like she had obviously just been using it.<p>

"Get ready we have a train to catch soon Lucy and we still have to meet Peter and Edmund."

"Okay." Lucy got herself dressed in expert time and packed her drawings of Narnian creatures into her bag as well while Susan packed in her art stuff.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Yes let's go." Lucy replied. The sisters made their way out of the school building and waited for their brothers.

While they were stood waiting both of them looked upon the few people that were moving about this early in the morning. Some people were staying at school, some (like them) were staying with someone else and some were having breakfast and then leaving.

Both theirs and their brother's school were doing breakfast for those who may need it, although the Pevensie children had decided that they would have something when they had gotten off of the first train that they had to take.

Of course they could have gotten the later train, but then you always get to places later and they had told the Professor that they would be there in time for tea.

* * *

><p>Edmund was ready before Peter and was sat on his bed waiting for him. The younger brother had rifled through the bag that Peter had packed him and found that his older brother had managed to pick both his favourite books to take with him and those that he was reading for his school work.<p>

When Peter was finally ready they set off. Both of them were carrying their own bag, but Peter watched Edmund cautiously as he could still see him limping every so often and trying to cover up the fact that he would still have – all be it shorter – coughing spells at random points in time.

When they met up with Susan and Lucy they made their way to the station and caught the early morning train to Strand station. One of the first conversations that they had was;

"Do you have a cold coming on Edmund?" Susan asked.

"You are coughing an awful lot." Lucy added.

"Yeah I suppose I do have a cold coming on." Edmund replied with a small smile to reassure his sisters that he was feeling alright.

"Of course you do." Peter mumbled. Neither of the girls heard it, but Edmund did and just gave Peter a small look that meant keep silent and Peter did.

Once they were at the busy Strand station, Peter lead his siblings up into the day light and bought them all something to eat before they headed off again.

Peter took note of the fact that Edmund actually ate something this time and Susan made sure that she watched her younger brother out of the corner of her eyes.

The four of them then caught the train out to the Professors in the country. The journey was long, but not as long as it had seemed before when they had first traveled to the professors as they hadn't really been on talking terms at that point in time, but now that they were the journey was easier and nicer than the previous.

"Peter can we play a game?" Lucy asked as the train went out of main cities and into the countryside.

"What game do you want to play?" Peter asked her.

"Eye spy, maybe." Lucy suggested.

"How can we play eye spy when we are constantly moving past the things that we could be spying?" Edmund asked.

"Good point." Lucy replied before going back to thinking again for a moment. She suggested a few more things before they decided on a game that they could manage to play on a train.

Edmund didn't join in, not because he didn't want to, but because he preferred to read a book rather than play it. Susan, Peter and Lucy had fun playing it and the time seemed to pass them easily even with the rain that had only just started about five minutes ago to beat down on the windows of the train carriages.

They stopped at the two stations that were on the train's route before they reached theirs, with Pewsey being one of them. When they reached Coombe Halt station, the four of them stepped off of the train and began the walk down the path.

Mrs Macready – who had been a lot nicer to them after they had come back from Narnia – meet up with them while they were walking along it and they climbed into her carriage that the horse pulled and she took them he rest of the way down the path to the house.

The old country house seemed to feel like home to them and from the minute that they had stepped inside, spending all that time at school finally seemed worth it to come back here. Professor Kirke made his way down the stairs and met them in the hall.

"Ah, Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, how nice it is to see you again," He gave them a smile and they all smiled back, "You know where your rooms are if you would like to take your stuff up there or anything else. They are the same rooms as before."

"Thank you." Susan was the one who said it, but when she spoke she was speaking for all of them.

Mrs Macready walked up behind them and asked if there was anything that she could get them. The children said that there was nothing that they needed really until tea and so the housekeeper asked what it was that they would like for tea.

The siblings let Lucy choose.

* * *

><p>They couldn't play rounder's outside like Lucy, Susan and Peter had wanted to, so they headed to their rooms. Susan began to continue her work on the painting that was her school art project that she would have to finish by the second week back at school if she wanted it to be properly graded by her teacher, although Susan was sure that she would get it finished before they returned to school.<p>

Lucy watched her for a while trying to piece it together and although she was forming ideas, she couldn't decide on which one to go for, however her sister made it no easier by telling her nothing, so even if she had managed to guess the right thing she wouldn't know as Susan was both refusing to tell her and very good at hiding emotions or actions that would tell you whether you had gotten it right or not.

But still it made Lucy smile never the less.

* * *

><p>Peter was catching up on work while Edmund lay on his bed reading a book. The black haired Pevensie brother had long ago taken his jumper off and placed it across him not because he was feeling cold, but because his stomach was hurting and he didn't want to give it away to Peter too much if he moved his hand.<p>

At least if he moved his hand with his jumper there he could act as if he was moving that instead of placing a hand on his stomach.

It was after they had eaten tea that the real problems started again, but Edmund had almost seen it coming considering that his coughing spells had stopped and he had actually been able to keep the food that he had eaten down and on top of that he had actually been able to eat it in the first place.

Peter was in the bathroom and Edmund was already dressed for bed when he started coughing again. When his older brother re-entered the room he sat down on his bed and tried to continue with his school work, but he found Edmund's coughing distracting.

"Are you alright Edmund?" He asked, "I don't believe that you just have a cold if your coughing that much."

"I've actually had a dry throat for most of the day," Edmund half lied, slightly worried by how easily the lie was able to slip with his teeth and out of his mouth without any form of major problem or hold back, "I'll just go and get a glass of water."

Edmund stood up and Peter gave his brother a small nod. He glanced back down at his work, but then back up at Edmund to say something, but he looked up in time to see Edmund kneel over to the floor as his legs seemed to give up holding his body weight (which wasn't very much Peter remembered just from looking at his brother and comparing the size of him with the size of himself) with his right ankle falling in first.

Peter didn't care about where his school book landed as he jumped off of the bed and dashed over to Edmund's side and picked his brother up into his arms.

"Edmund, Edmund come on, look at me." Edmund looked up at Peter before squinting his eyes shut as his breathing became more laboured and he continued to cough and splutter like he had been before. Peter noticed the arm that Edmund wrapped around his stomach and the groan of pain.

"What's wrong?" He asked, but Edmund didn't answer, so Peter tried again, "Edmund answer me." Edmund just groaned, but didn't actually answer Peter and the oldest Pevensie feared for his brother's health more than he ever had, apart from the Battle of Beruna of course.

Now Peter was beginning to wish that he had nagged Edmund to tell him the truth all of those days ago when he noticed that things were wrong with his brother.

"Edmund answer me, Edmund!" Peter began to panic, however he wasn't willing to leave his brother, so he did the only other thing that he could and silently thanked the years he had spent in Narnia leading battle charges to help him manage to keep his voice even when he shouted massively loudly.

"Susan! Lucy! Professor! Mrs Macready!" He called all of their names and hoped that one of them at least would be able to hear him before he turned his attention back to Edmund.

"Stay with me my dear brother, you've faced worst and survived that," He paused for a second before adding, "You always survive."

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><p>Okay next chapter you will find out what is wrong with Edmund. I hope you liked the chapter and I will try to update this again at the weekend. Please check out the poll on my profile to vote for what pairings you would like me to write in my next stories. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	7. Chapter 6

Alright onto chapter 7 now, thanks for all of the reviews that you gave me for the last chapter.

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><p>Professor Digory Kirke sat in his study working even at these late hours working away. It helped him to take his mind of things when he was filling it with work.<p>

His work didn't block out noise though and through all his years of working, blocking out noise had been something that he had never thought to do or think it wise to do.

When he had first met the Pevensie's their family had been in a bit of conflict, so it wasn't unusual to hear them loudly speaking to each other, but after they had been to Narnia the only shouting that they had done had been if they were in danger or needed to convey a point as it seemed that them growing up in Narnia had done them all some real good as a family and as people in general.

So hearing Peter's voice shouting now was unusual and adding that to the fact that he was shouting names made it even stranger.

Carefully the old professor stood up and made his way to the door, opening it and shutting in behind him to make his way down the corridor towards the rooms that he had assigned to the Pevensie children. He headed to Peter and Edmund's room and knocked on the door before Peter shouted for him to come in.

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><p>Susan had been laying half awake when she heard her name being called by Peter's voice as well as Lucy's, the Professor's and Mrs Macready's. She sat up and looked at the door that would lead to the hall and her brother's room which was just across the hall.<p>

Lucy had already fallen asleep a little while ago, the journey to the Professor's having taken a lot of her energy, but Susan knew that she wouldn't like to not be woken up if Peter had called for her as well.

Susan got off her bed and moved over to Lucy and shook her younger sister awake.

"Lu, Lucy, Peter's calling us." She told her. Lucy blinked her eyes open and looked at Susan before pulling the covers back and slipping her feet into her slippers as Susan left the room. When she entered the hall she noticed that the door to Peter and Edmund's room was open and she could make out three forms that looked like her brothers and the professor.

"Peter, what's wrong? What's all the shouting about?" Susan asked as she entered the room, but she didn't have to say anything else when she saw Peter holding Edmund in his arms with the professor and Mrs Macready beside him.

"Oh Aslan, what happened to him?" She asked as she knelt beside Peter. Lucy entered the room behind her and remained stood at the door with a shocked look on her face although she sensed it better to remain where she was.

"Will he be alright?" Peter asked, directing his question to the Professor and Mrs Macready and the same time as Edmund coughed, but didn't open his eyes at all which made Peter even more worried.

"He should be," The Professor replied, "But to know for certain you would have to know if there was anything that had happened leading up to this." Susan looked to Peter and then the pair looked to Lucy who instantly stared back at them.

"Lu, I think maybe you should-" Peter started, but he didn't quite know how he was supposed to tell her what to do now that she was involved.

"Lucy what Peter meant to say was that it might be better if you-" Susan didn't get to finish either not because she didn't know what to say, but because Lucy interrupted her.

"I should go back to bed?"

"Yeah." Peter replied. Susan got to her feet and made her way over to the door to join her younger sister.

"I'll go with her."

"I think that's a good idea, Su," Peter told her, "I'll call you if we need you, both of you." He gave them a small smile more to reassure Lucy than anything else and it seemed to work as she left the room with Susan.

Peter looked back down at his brother before looking up and switching his gaze between the Professor and his housekeeper.

"Well at school I don't think that he's been eating properly and I came back from playing rounder's one day and he had all of these injuries and then when the four of us all had a day off we went in to town and he was just limping a bit on his right ankle and when Lucy hugged him Susan said that he had put an arm around his ribs like she had hurt him and then yesterday he started coughing and spluttering."

"So what happened before you called for us?" The Professor asked.

"Edmund was going to go and get a glass of water, but when he stood up he walked a few steps before just falling down, although it looked like his right ankle had given in first if I saw right."

"Anything else?" Professor Kirke asked Peter.

"I think he's being bullied by someone," Peter said, "I can't think of any other explanation for it."

"Well until we know, there's nothing that we can say for defiant," The Professor told Peter, "I suggest we move him onto his bed, he'll most likely be more comfortable there."

"Right," Peter replied as he carefully lifted his brother up and moved him to said location. He heard the door open and shut and saw Susan re-enter the room and leaning against the door to see what was going on, "Lucy?"

"I left her now that's she's asleep again," Susan explained, "I'll go back in a moment I just wanted to know whether Edmund was alright."

"We don't know." Peter told her honestly and Susan looked at the floor before opening the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning." She shut the door carefully behind her and Peter looked back at Edmund and placed his hand across his brother's forehead and feeling how hot it felt before looking up at the Professor.

"I think he might have a fever, he's running a high temperature."

"Oh, I'll get you some cold water." Mrs Macready said before leaving the room as the Professor made his way over to where Peter was with a chair for the oldest Pevensie sibling to sit on.

"If you want some rest, I'll stay awake with him for you." He offered.

"No it's alright, I'll stay with him. I owe him that much at least," The Professor nodded, "I'll stay with him until he's awake and then I'll rest."

"If you're sure."

"I am." Mrs Macready returned a minute later with a bowl of water and a cloth for Peter which she handed to him before leaving again. Peter went about trying to lower Edmund's temperature as the Professor watched.

"What do you plan to do when you are older Peter?" He asked.

"I've been considering a career in medicine." The boy replied.

"Well if you ever need a tutor let me know," The Professor stood and made his way towards the door, "You know where I'll be if you need me." Peter gave him a smile before he left and then turned his attention back to Edmund who lay on the bed, relatively unmoving and it worried Peter, but he knew that at this moment in time that there was nothing that he could do.

But if he had done something sooner then maybe he could have stopped this.

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><p>Edmund blinked his eyes open and woke up to see Peter sat beside him. His older brother was watching him carefully and Edmund groaned as he realised that he must have passed out. He went to sit up, but Peter carefully pushed him back down and Edmund was glad that he did as his stomach felt far too painful for him to do so.<p>

"Steady, you are running a very high temperature, so I recommend that you just lay back and relax for a bit, alright." Edmund just nodded his reply and could feel how hot he felt without even having to raise a hand to his forehead.

Peter was placing a cold cloth across his forehead and Edmund took in a deep breath before asking a question that he already knew the answer to.

"What happened?" Edmund asked his older brother.

"I thought that you could tell me." Peter replied and Edmund inwardly groaned at the fact that Peter had realised that something was wrong with him after all. He didn't really know what to say, but in the end he didn't have to say anything at all as Peter spoke before he could.

"You collapsed," He started, "The Professor and Mrs Macready were up for quite a while trying to help me make sure that you would be alright and even Susan stayed up a bit, but we wouldn't let Lucy. We were wondering if there was anything that could have caused this, but I didn't really know of anything." Peter gave him that look that implied that he knew more than he was actually letting on.

"How would I know?" Edmund replied, aware that he sounded like a little child who was trying to lie through its teeth. And he could also see that this time, his lies just weren't working.

"Ed, please I really just want to help you to get better again. You've been slipping away from us and I don't know what else I can do and I don't want to risk losing you again." Edmund knew what his older brother was referring to and the tone of his voice made Edmund feel a lot more than just guilty.

"I-" Edmund cut himself off and Peter kept his eyes focussed on him, "I can't-"

"You can't what?" Peter asked and Edmund remained silent before his brother placed a hand on his shoulder, "You know that you can tell me anything Ed, absolutely anything."

The room was filled with an uncomfortable silence for a minute before Edmund took in a deep breath that pulled at a sharp pain in his ribs which Peter noticed easily as he moved to help his younger brother sit up.

Edmund leaned his head against the wall and took in another breath, but not as deep this time, although it still managed to hurt. Sitting up he suddenly felt a lot colder than he had before, but he was still too hot to be considered cold by anyone except himself.

"Alright?" Peter asked carefully and Edmund gave a small nod, although Peter could tell that he wasn't really, "Talk to me Edmund please."

"I can't tell you Peter." Edmund mumbled.

"I can help you though, or at least try to," Peter paused before asking, "Don't you trust me?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, but more that I just can't actually tell you." As Peter listened to what Edmund was saying the more he was beginning to recognise it as something else rather than just words. And the more he thought about it as well as everything else that had been happening the whole thing seemed to fit together like a puzzle for which he had just found the final missing piece.

"Edmund is someone threatening you?" Peter asked and he heard Edmund's breath catch in his throat and knew that he had finally found the right note to start on.

"Do I know them?"

"Leave it, Peter."

"Ed,"

"Just leave it alone Peter!" Edmund almost shouted as he placed an arm around his ribs as he remembered to stop himself from doing so.

"No Edmund," Edmund looked up at his brother and his next five words brought everything he had tried to keep hidden, every emotion, every injury, every sign, everything just came crashing down, "I can't leave this alone."

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><p>Alright sorry for the later than planned update, but I will hopefully update again in the week, Wednesday or Thursday probably. I also plan to update I'm not Holding your Hand later on this evening or tomorrow, but I would prefer to try and get the next chapter up tonight.<p>

Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading and please remember to check out my pole to vote for what pairings you would like me to write in my new stories.


	8. Chapter 7

Alright here's the next chapter of The Just, thank you for all of the reviews, favourites and alerts.

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><p>Lucy and Susan headed downstairs for breakfast with the Professor and Mrs Macready. The pair of sisters had already decided that they would go and see Edmund and Peter later on this morning.<p>

Susan hadn't really slept worried out of her mind for her younger brother and Lucy had slept until the early hours of the morning when she had woken and started to draw yet another picture of Aslan and Susan had joined in the conversation that Lucy had started about the great lion. Her younger sister had also talked about Mr Tumnus and Mr and Mrs Beaver.

She had also talked about the things that Mrs Beaver used to give them for breakfast and that managed to put a smile on both of their faces.

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><p>The silence that they sat in was a tense silence that filled the room for a few minutes before they reassumed any real form of communication between themselves.<p>

Peter kept his eye on his younger brother the whole time making a note of every single move that he made until he eventually said something.

"I should of told you before." Edmund said simply, but even still Peter was glad that his brother had spoken first and he smiled slightly at that and thought of something that he could say in a joke like, but still serious way to try and rise the tenseness a bit.

"Yes you should have." Edmund looked up at his smiling brother and knew what Peter was trying to do, but he had to admit that it did work and a small smile appeared on his face before he let that smile slip and started speaking again.

"You might know them I'm not sure."

"Know who?"

"The four of them."

"And who are those four?" Peter asked, "I'm assuming they go to our school, so I would suppose they are around our age if you think that I might know them." Edmund only nodded.

"So what year are they in?" Peter asked, but Edmund didn't answer, so Peter tried a different approach, "Are they in my year?"

"Are they in yours?" Edmund nodded, but then added something of his own to go into a more detailed explanation.

"One of them is in your year and the rest are in mine."

"Okay, how much older than you are they?" Peter asked

"Three of them are around my age, just a few months, weeks or days older and then one of them – their leader – is closer to your age."

"So you think that I know the older one?"

"Yeah I do, Tyler Lewis ring any bells to you?"

"Not off the top of my head no," Peter paused to think some more, "Why should I know him?"

"I don't know," Edmund said, "He mentioned your name the first few times."

"Well I don't-" Peter paused a second before looking at Edmund, "What do you mean the first few times, Ed?"

"Exactly what I said."

"Just how many times has this actually happened?" Edmund opened his mouth to answer, but Peter interrupted, "And answer me truthfully, please."

"About eight or nine times since a couple weeks after the beginning of this year."

"And you never thought to say anything?"

"It never came up in conversation!"

"Well that's, because you hide things to well!"

Peter was in turn fuming by the end of Edmund's explanations. Partly because his brother had told him, but more over on those who were doing what Edmund had to tell him.

Edmund had told him about the numerous injuries that he had received through this and Peter was waiting for his brother to tell him what had happened the most recent time to injure him so much more than the rest of the times that this had happened.

"So what happened this time? How did you get so badly injured?"

"It was just one injury after another," Edmund started, "I injured my ankle when they knocked me over and my ribs when they kicked me. I remember getting kicked in the stomach a few times as well."

"Oh Edmund you should have said, I would have got out school's nurse to look at your injuries then you wouldn't be in this state right now."

"You don't know that for certain." Edmund replied before coughing slightly and Peter grabbed the glass of water that had been on top of the bedside table and handed it to his younger brother who drank most of it in one go before handing the glass back to Peter who then place it back where it came from.

"No I don't, but I can guess that you might have been in a better state right now if I had just been more insistent with you."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't do that would you, because you don't want things to go back to how they were before Narnia." Edmund replied.

"True." Peter replied before there was a knock at the door the Professor walked in.

"Oh you're awake," He said looking at Edmund, "Are you feeling any better?"

"A bit thank you." Edmund replied.

"Well I came up to ask if Peter wanted his breakfast brought up to him, but since you are both awake I will get Mrs Macready to bring you both up some breakfast."

"We can come downstairs." Peter replied before looking to Edmund.

"Yeah I can manage a few stairs."

"No it's alright, Mrs Macready is fine to bring your breakfast up to you both and then I do believe that your sisters would like to come up and see you both." The Professor left after that and Edmund sighed.

"Why does everyone feel they have to make such a fuss over this?"

"Because it's something that requires a fuss made of. Edmund we can't just let it go straight over our heads and act like it never happened!" Edmund didn't reply to that so Peter sighed quietly and changed subjects.

"So tell me what happened then." Edmund explained and Peter listened before asking;

"But couldn't you have fought against them?" Peter asked, "I mean after Narnia, after everything that we did there."

"I did the first few times, but eventually they just started to learn my strong points and my weak points and every time they would manage to get my weaker points, so the last few times I've just stopped trying to fight them."

"Oh Ed, just think what Oreius would say about that."

"It wouldn't matter though would it." Edmund replied and Peter gave him a confused look.

"Why wouldn't it? Of course it would matter, Edmund, you're a King of Narnia remember. Remember what Aslan said as well. Once a King or Queen of Narnia always a King or Queen."

"Yeah, but I'm only King Edmund the Just, I'm not the Valiant, the Gentle or the Magnificent I'm just the Just."

Peter remained absolutely silent while Edmund took in a breath as he assumed that his brother hadn't actually finished speaking to him just yet, "Without you Lucy and Susan – the Magnificent, the Valiant and the Gentle – Narnia would fall apart it just didn't need me. It didn't need the Just."

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><p>Okay I know it's short, but I hadn't finished writing all of this chapter, so the rest of it I will upload with a part of what would be chapter eight tomorrow, so that way I can make up for not updating this story yesterday and you will get two chapters by the end of this week.<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please remember to vote on my poll. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.


	9. Chapter 8

Okay onto chapter eight now.

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><p>"Of course Narnia needed you Ed."<p>

"No it didn't."

"How long has this been bothering you for?"

"A while."

"Is that partly why you've been acting strangely lately?" Peter asked.

"Partly, yes." Edmund replied.

"Why didn't you just talk to me about it. We could have sorted all of this." His older brother and High King told him.

"I know." Edmund replied before there was another knock at the door. Lucy and Susan made their way in with Susan carrying a tray consisting of cups of water, rounds of toast and boiled eggs. The four siblings didn't mention anything specifically to do with Edmund while they ate, but after they had finished eating Peter took the tray and informed his siblings where he was going.

"I'm going to see the Professor."

"I'll come with you." Susan said as she rose to her feet and followed her older brother out of the room. Edmund remained where he was and he half expected Lucy to follow her older siblings, but she didn't and remained sat where she was sat.

"Aren't you going with them?" He asked her.

"No I thought I would keep you company," She told him, "I have seen much of you since school started up again."

"No I suppose you haven't." Edmund replied before the pair sat in silence for a while until Lucy spoke up.

"Do you believe that we'll go back to Narnia, Edmund?" She asked.

Edmund was at first slightly taken aback by Lucy's question and even though he was sure that she hadn't heard his earlier conversation with Peter regarding Narnia he did wonder whether she had picked on up hints of it.

"I suppose I do believe that we will. Aslan never said that we couldn't after all."

"And that's what I keep thinking," Lucy replied, "Susan always say that if we're going to go back we'll figure it out when it happens and things do happen when you aren't expecting or looking for them."

"That is very true." Edmund replied thinking of what had been happening at school, because he hadn't been either expecting or looking for that to happen.

"Why do you think we came back though?" Lucy asked and Edmund realised that it was something that he hadn't really thought about yet, "I mean if we're going back one day why did we come back then? We were doing well with Narnia weren't we? Do you think we did something wrong?"

"I don't know Lucy," Edmund told her honestly, "I really don't know."

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><p>Peter had taken the tray back down to Mrs Macready and thanked her for breakfast on both his and Edmund's behalf before both he and Susan headed back up to the Professor's study. The oldest Pevensie took a deep breath before knocking on the door. It was opened a moment later by the old Professor who gave them both a warm smile before inviting them in.<p>

"I was expecting to see you two today," He said as he shut the door to the study and make his way back over to sit at his desk, "How is Edmund?"

"He's better thanks," Peter replied before looking to Susan who nodded for him to explain on further, "I think I've found out what is wrong with him."

"Well then do enlighten you sister and I." The Professor replied, lighting his pipe.

"I believe he's being bullied although he didn't give me an exact reason as to why, but he did ask whether I knew the people who were doing it to him, although I really don't remember ever knowing them."

"Why don't you ask him why he thinks that you would know them?" The Professor suggested.

"I wanted to talk to you first," Peter started before looking to Susan, "About Narnia."

"Oh, go on then, talk to me."

"Well when we went to Narnia before, Aslan crowned us Kings and Queens," Professor Kirke nodded and then Peter continued, "Well I was King Peter the Magnificent, Susan was Queen Susan the Gentle, Lucy was Queen Lucy the Valiant and Edmund was King Edmund the Just."

"Hmm and?"

"Well today he told me that he didn't think that Narnia actually needed him to be the Just King or to in fact even be there."

"Why did he never say anything?" Susan questioned.

"That's nonsense," Replied the Professor, "Narnia needed all of you. It especially needed a Just King for one thing I mean how else would you expect to have a smoothly running kingdom!"

"I know, but he seemed pretty sure that he was just the Just."

"As in like just just?" Susan questioned.

"Yeah," Peter replied while looking at her, "But he's not, he's our brother and we love him more than I think he realises. On top of that I don't think that he felt he could talk to us about everything that was going on at school and everything that he was feeling or I think he would have said something a little while ago."

"Alright well Peter when did you first notice that something was up with Edmund?" The Professor asked.

"Well it was-" And so began Peter's explanation.

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><p>"When we go back I bet there will be a big feast and we can go for a big long ride and Father Christmas will see us again at another of Susan's Christmas parties."<p>

"Maybe."

"And Aslan might even come and see us and maybe we could actually manage to catch the White Stag this time!"

"Yeah."

"And then in the Spring, Mr and Mrs Beaver will take us to see Badger and Fox and then the Dryads will come back out and we can all enjoy the Spring dance festival that Susan did and maybe-" Lucy stopped speaking when she noticed Edmund looking at the floor and only replying to her in short one worded answers.

"You're not really interested are you?" She asked after a moment.

"No, I am Lucy," Edmund told her, "Really I am, but it's just-" He stopped speaking and shook his head not really knowing what he could say to Lucy – for even though she would most likely completely disagree with it – it didn't feel right to burden her with it especially when she was so enthusiastic about the world in which she had first discovered at the back of an old wooden wardrobe in a spare room.

Or Spare Oom as it had come to be known within the land of Narnia.

King Peter; Queen Susan; King Edmund and Queen Lucy from the shining city of War Drobe in the wonderous land of Spare Oom: or at least that was how Mr Tumnus put it.

Lucy tilted her head slightly to her right and blinked a few times with a small frown appearing on her face for a moment before it disappeared, "What's wrong Edmund?" She asked and Edmund raised his head up and she tilted hers back up to being straight again.

"Nothing."

"Oh come on Edmund, please." Lucy begged just like she always did. Even in Narnia when she was approaching her twenties in Narnia she still had tendencies to do that when she wanted something or wanted her siblings to play a game or go with her somewhere.

He, Peter and Susan had tried not to give in to her when she did this, but the Narnian creatures would usually (and as is only really customary with your King or Queen) do so without a complaint to it.

They would do the same for Edmund as well, but he never felt that he deserved both their loyalty and their hard work, so he would try to do as much as he could do on his own.

"Oh come on Edmund, what is-"

Peter, Susan and the Professor walked into the room and in effect cutting Lucy off.

"I think it's time we talked," Susan said as Peter shut the door, "All of us."

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><p>Okay I plan to update this again during the week and I also plan to update I'm not Holding Your Hand tomorrow if I can. Please continue to vote on my poll – I know a few of you already have :) Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	10. Chapter 9

Okay sorry that this is slightly latter than promised, but I will promise you that I will still have time to write my fanfictions and I will let you know if there will be any delays in updates prior to it. Anyway on with the chapter.

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><p>When the whole group were sat down Susan looked between them all.<p>

"Edmund, why didn't you tell us how you felt?"

"I didn't want to worry you."

"You worried us more by not telling us," Peter replied, "I've been worried sick about you and Susan hasn't fared much better than that especially last night."

"Sorry I should have told you about that." Edmund replied.

"And what ever made you think that Narnia didn't need a Just King?" The professor asked him, "Places always need Just Kings."

"I just didn't ever seem to be that important in Narnia."

Lucy was looking between the group slightly confused. She was aware of a few events, like that of last night, but not many of the other events that her older siblings and the Professor seemed to be referring to.

"Can I ask what you are talking about?" She asked, "I don't think I'm aware of whatever it is that you are."

Edmund looked at Susan and she looked to Peter. All of them did need to talk, but none of them were overly sure whether or not Lucy should hear the whole tale.

"Lu, it's not that we don't want to tell you," Peter told her, "But I'm just not overly sure as to whether you really want to hear it. It could be a violent story, I'm not quite sure."

Susan was the next to speak, starting almost immediately after Peter had finished speaking.

"Lucy it's up to you whether you listen or not. If you feel at any time that you don't want to listen to a part of it then you can just the leave the room and come back in a little later, alright?"

"Yeah." Lucy replied before looking to Edmund, who said nothing.

"Well I think that we should start with the root of the problem," Peter started, "Which for me is this whole Narnia not needing you thing. Sort that and then we can sort the rest."

"But Narnia needed us, all four of us." Lucy replied.

"Edmund you probably did the most work out of all of us," Susan said, "I mean I didn't even do that much."

"Yes you did," Edmund replied, "All of you did. All of you did so much more than I ever did and everyone respected you so much more than they ever did me."

"Nonsense," The Professor interrupted, "If that was true then you wouldn't have been King for fifthteen whole years now would you."

"I suppose not," Edmund replied before looking down and fiddling with his fingers, "But I still don't think that Narnia needed me that much."

"Well why ever not, Ed?" Peter asked.

"Well Lucy was always allowed to go anywhere that she wanted and play games and you even allowed her to go to war with you even when you wouldn't allow me."

"But that was only so that I could have full access to her cordial and-"

"I know that, but I could have helped you fight, Peter," Edmund replied, "I could of helped all of you, but I was always the one who had to sit back and do nothing. When you and Lucy were away then Susan was put in charge and when only you were away she was still in charge. You never let me go with you and sometimes made some very bad decisions that people then thought were my ideas and-"

"Ed," Peter interrupted, "I never meant for you to feel like that."

"Nor did I." Susan told him.

"I didn't even know." Lucy replied.

"Hey," Edmund pulled his younger sister close and gave her a small smile, "You weren't really to know and I'm glad that you didn't."

"Okay." She replied.

"Well can I just interrupt and say that we have so far only looked upon the bad points and reasons of why you didn't feel needed in Narnia," The Professor told them, "But surely there were some things that you did do during your time in Narnia, Edmund?"

"Not that I know of." The Just King replied.

"Oh Ed you put yourself down too much," Peter replied, "I can think of a numerous amount of things that you did there."

"So can I." Susan said.

"And me." Lucy inputted.

"Like?" Edmund asked.

"Well there was the Battle of Beruna," Peter started, "It was you and Aslan who defeated the White Witch and after that you were the one who made all of the decisions on what we were going to do to get Narnia back under our control. It was also you Edmund who made out quite of few of my battle plans in those first few years if you remember? I would never have gotten the Lone Islands back if it wasn't for you and your sense and skill when you wrote those plans."

"I suppose." Edmund replied.

"And when I was organising loads of parties or we had guests coming round you always helped me to make sure that I didn't get too stressed and I know that no one ever really thanked you for it, but I was grateful. I don't think I would have survived otherwise."

"I know I helped you, but I didn't get a reputation for anything like that."

"No you didn't, but what about when we met Rabadash of Calormene? Edmund it was you who saved both of our lives and then you saved us from all out war then. The Calormene were going for both us and our allies Archenland. You saved us all that day."

"I guess so."

"There's no guessing about it Edmund," Lucy finally spoke up, "You did so much more than just those things. Like the time when I got lost."

Susan and Peter instantly flung their heads round to face her, "When was that?" Susan asked and Peter had been about to ask the exact same question.

"Edmund covered it for me," Lucy replied, "I went out to play hide and seek with some of the animals just down from the castle and I got lost. You and Susan were both up at Ettinsmoor and you had left General Oreius in charge, but when I didn't return Edmund came out looking for me. He found me and brought me back to Cair Paravel, but he got soaked while doing so. I hidden under some of the trees and sheltered there for a while."

"So that's why Ed had a cold when we returned I always wondered whether that was just coincidental or not." Peter replied.

"And you would play games and explore places with me whenever I wanted and it was you and Mr Tumnus who found out about the White Stag for us to chase." Lucy added to her part of the list.

"Yeah, but is that a good thing?" Edmund asked.

"Well why wouldn't it be?" Lucy questioned.

"It brought us back home," Edmund replied, "Surely that was a bad thing, because none of us really wanted to go home."

"No we didn't, but Ed I don't think that we would have gone back if there hadn't been a reason." Susan replied.

"Yeah," Peter started, "I'm sure that Aslan knew what he was doing."

"I suppose."

Lucy placed a hand on Edmund's arm, "We'll go back one day." The youngest Pevensie looked around to the faces of her older siblings and the Professor. The air of tenseness in the room was killing her and the whole situation made the air feel heavy and imprinting and all that she wanted to do was clear that as best as she could before they moved on to talk about anything else.

"We will go back, I'm sure we will, don't you think so to?" No one replied and Lucy felt slightly put of and taken a back.

"Well," The Professor started sensing the tension between them all I think we should all head outside for some fresh air and a picnic before we hear the rest of this tale don't you?"

And so that was what they did.

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><p>I'm so sorry that you have all waited days for this, I will try and get the next chapter up quicker, also I think that there will only be two more chapters to this story. Please vote on my poll, thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading.<p> 


	11. Chapter 10

Okay, I know it has been a long time since I last updated this story, but I am back! I know my last update was the 20th September (for I'm Not Holding Your Hand,) however I am going to pick up on updating this one and updating with new stories from the votes on my pole for pairings/friendship (which you can still vote on for one more week!) and others that I have ideas for in my mind, so I hope you'll stick with me.

P.S. If you haven't read the most recent chapter of I'm Not Holding Your Hand, then I've included the reason below: Firstly I got the part of Susan in my school's production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which took up a lot of my time with rehearsals (1 lunchtime/3 after school,) added to the fact that our school made up do 'duties' like cleaning, running after school and lunch time clubs etc. none of which were optional as they would look good on our CV's apparently. At the same time I had my exams to deal with and then had to look after my cousin while her Mum was in hospital.

I also have times to write bits at lunch now, so hopefully my updates will be quicker.

Sorry for the long note, but now on with the story (at last!)

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><p>Chapter 9 (End part for a recap)<p>

"We will go back, I'm sure we will, don't you think so too?" No one replied and Lucy felt slightly put off and taken a back.

"Well," The Professor started sensing the tension between them all I think we should all head outside for some fresh air and a picnic before we hear the rest of this tale don't you?"

And so that was what they did.

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><p>The weather was nice on their picnic and even Mrs Macready had accompanied them on the small trip. The atmosphere was nicer out in the country than in the city schools and the children found that they were really enjoying having the peace and quiet that they had become used to back again.<p>

Edmund wasn't joining in their game of rounders, because of his ankle and as he had reminded Peter of earlier, the last time he played rounders here, he did end up breaking a window. However Lucy had just replied to that comment with a simple, "It was good though," before running off to join in the game.

Mrs Macready was sorting out the food from the picnic basket and the Professor had joined in with the three Pevensie children's game of rounders.

After a while, the family continued to play and the Professor excused himself from the game, walking over to sit by Edmund who had been busy reading.

"It's a nice game," The Professor started, "But I haven't played it in a while, my back's a bit rusty."

"I don't play it very often, Sir," Edmund replied, "Peter does though, almost every day back at school."

"You can tell that," The Professor replied as he watched the game for a moment longer before turning to Edmund, "How's that ankle feeling?"

"A bit better thanks, Sir," Edmund replied, putting his book down to talk to the man, "Do you ever think we'll go back to Narnia?"

"Yes, of course you will." Digory answered a smile as he looked at Edmund.

"But what makes you think we'll get back if you never did?" The other asked, remembering the tales the Professor had told them before when they had returned from Narnia.

"Well, you and your family are Kings and Queens," The Professor answered, "You're needed more than a boy and his little friend."

"But you can't have not been important there!" Edmund insisted, "Especially if you helped Aslan."

"Sometimes things happen, because you aren't expecting them or looking for them," The elder man replied as he lent back against one the trees, "I certainly wasn't looking for Narnia or any of its magic. Just to help my Mother get better."

"Do you think I could try going through the wardrobe again?" The younger Pevensie brother queried.

"Oh you could try, but I don't think you'll get in that way," The Professor paused as Edmund looked up at him in wait for an answer, "You see things never happen the same way twice."

Edmund sat in thought over this for a moment before Peter, Lucy and Susan made their way over and sat down, as they all began to eat the picnic food that had been packed.

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><p>That night, after dinner, Edmund completely disappeared. Peter noticed this and sought out the Professor in panic for as to where his brother could be. The Professor looked at him for a moment in thought before telling Peter his idea of where the younger Pevensie brother would be.<p>

Peter made his way through the house and took in a breath before opening the door that lead to the Spare room, or rather Spare Oom. The wardrobe stood at the back of the room still, in all of the same wonder as it had done the first time. The door to the wardrobe was slightly ajar, like one would leave it if they were hiding inside and were sensible enough to know not to shut themselves inside.

"Edmund?" Peter asked as he opened the wardrobe door completely and found his brother sat in the darkness of wooden confinement, with his arms around his knees and his head resting on top of them. The younger didn't raise his head or make any obvious action that he knew of the elder's presence, however Peter knew that his brother was aware that he was there.

Carefully Peter stepped into the wardrobe and sat down beside his brother, looking at him for a moment trying to think of what to say, but he didn't have to say anything before Edmund started to explain it all to him.

Peter placed an arm around Edmund's shoulder and pulled him closer to him. Edmund rested his head onto Peter's shoulder while he continued to tell the tale of the recent events at school in full, sometimes dipping into Narnia's lack of need for him. By the end of the explanation, Edmund was just mumbling pointless words that when linked together meant absolutely nothing to Peter and he knew that they definitely wouldn't to anyone else either.

The door of the beautiful, wooden wardrobe sung slightly further open as the two sat there in silence, but they didn't need words to understand. What they had said was already enough and Peter was fuming with anger.

And he had five weeks to wait and plan before they returned to school.

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><p>Okay, I know it is short, but I plan on updating again during the week as I already have half of the next chapter written, because it was originally going to go in with this one, but it didn't really work for me and I preferred to end it on this point. Also I am going to let you know now, that in the next chapter I won't be skipping those five weeks before school.<p>

I will update again during the week (first half more likely,) because you have all been waiting for so long, so I will hurry up and write the rest of the chapter for you all. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourite and alerted: it means a lot to me :)


	12. Chapter 11

Since Peter had learnt the full story, he had spent a lot more time in his room, leaning over his desk and a piece of paper with a pencil in his hand. Edmund had woken up earl - in a much better mood now then when they had first arrived at the Professors – and headed down to breakfast with Lucy and Susan.

Their conversation over breakfast had consisted of purely idle chat and the Professor had soon left the three younger Pevensie's to get back to his work and Mrs Macready had explained that she would be taking a trip out later if any of them wished to join her, to which Susan and Lucy could only answer 'yes' with complete delight.

Edmund had excused himself from the table after that to return to his room, planning on reading, but when he returned to their room, Peter was in the same position as when the younger Pevensie brother had left him that morning.

"Pete, are you going to do anything else today or not?" Edmund questioned his older brother as he sat down on his bed and picked up the book he was in the middle of reading.

"It depends if I think of anything better to do." The elder replied as he continued scribbling on a piece of paper. Edmund slowly put his book down and rose up before heading over to Peter's desk and standing behind him for a while. When Peter didn't notice, he sighed before snatching the paper from under Peter's hands.

"Ed!" Peter shouted as he pushed his chair back and stood up, trying to follow his younger brother to retrieve his plans.

"Pete, we are not doing any of these ideas!" Edmund commented before screwing the paper up and throwing it into the bin beside Peter's desk, just as the elder caught up to him and made a grab for the piece of paper.

"Edmund-"

"Listen to me Peter. We have to be Just on this one. I know it annoys you, but you can't be reckless with things like this. Remember when you almost caused war with Rabadash? You did the exact same thing then!" The younger explained as he sat down on his bed and watched as Peter sighed and joined him.

"I know. I'm sorry," Peter paused and looked over at his younger brother, "Can you see why Narnia needed a Just King now though, Ed?" The black haired Pevensie brother looked down at the floor before nodding in agreement.

"What do you want to do today then?" Peter asked, "I won't mention anything to do with any of it."

"Well, there's some good land around here," Edmund commented, "Doesn't it remind you of Narnia sometimes? The open spaces? Places like Beruna?"

"Yes, it does," Peter replied, "Are you thinking that we-"

"Test what we still know from Narnia?"

"Yeah," Peter replied, "So shall we see who can cross the longest distance?"

"Why not." Edmund replied as the too got up and left the room, informing The Professor of where they were going before leaving the house and setting off across the land, while at the same time Susan and Lucy left with Mrs Macready.

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><p>The pair had spent the majority of their afternoon (after the travelling of course,) laying on the grass and looking up at the sky, talking between the two of them, laughing, smiling and just generally being the brothers that they now realised - after spending all that time growing up in Narnia – they should have been all along.<p>

It's strange what things make you notice something that you had never seen before, but should have.

"That cloud looks like Mr Tumnus," Edmund commented as he pointed and looked across at Peter, who just looked slightly unsure, "Can't you see the figure and the his umbrella?"

"I can see the umbrella, but I don't know if that's just, because of all the stories I remember about it."

"Like?" Edmund asked as he moved onto his side, so that he was looking directly at Peter while his brother told the tale that he was thinking of.

"That time when Rabadash came to participant in that tournament that we were holding, with people from Archenland as well?" Edmund nodded to show that he remembered the time in question, "It was a really nice week that week and he had his umbrella up the entire time. We must have all looked right fools, sat next to a faun wearing a scarf and an umbrella throughout duration of the tournament."

Edmund just laughed, "After spending his entire life living in an extremely cold winter Pete, I can see why he still wore his scarf and used his umbrella for while."

"A while?" Peter commented questioningly, "He only took it off when we had been ruling Narnia for fourteen years, Ed!" Both of them ended up laughing at the memory of the day Mr Tumnus had finally taken his scarf off, which - most strangely - had been in the middle of winter.

Peter and Edmund had crossed a considerable length of open space when they reached a point in which they decided to turn back and return to the Professors, considering how long they had already been out there.

"I'll race you back." Peter told Edmund as the pair shared a glance and a smile before they both started running off as quickly as they could to try and beat the other back to the country house in which they were currently staying in.

The countryside was long, but neither of them minded the distance. Narnia had increased stamina and skill in both of them and, even though neither of them were still there, they had kept a hold of everything that they had learnt in their time spent there ruling side by side as Kings. They hadn't been that far away from home, when the nice day had to come to an end for them.

It had all happened so suddenly that Edmund couldn't stop himself from falling as his ankle fell away from underneath him and he found himself falling down a small expanse of hill. Peter had noticed straight away when he could no longer see his brother out of his line of sight and with the added cry from when he had fell.

Peter stopped running forward and ran over to his brother, who was already attempting to pull himself up. Peter had joined his brother, just as he was attempting to get onto his feet, but as soon as he stood onto his injured ankle, he fell down again and Peter only just managed to grab a hold of him as the floor rushed up to greet the younger.

"Thanks." Edmund told his older brother as Peter placed him on the ground from their half stood position.

"You're welcome," Peter replied as he sat himself down as well, "What in the Lions Mane happened though Ed?"

"I'm not sure. One minute I was running and then my ankle just gave way underneath me," Edmund explained as he looked over at his brother, who was intently studying his ankle, "We should be getting back, b- Ow! Peter?"

"Sorry, but I had to test if it was broken."

"And, Doctor Pevensie?" Edmund asked, being completely sarcastic, "Will I live?"

"Edmund," Peter replied firmly, "This isn't funny. Your ankle's not broken, but you can't walk on it."

"I have to if we are going to get back."

"I could always carry you." Peter suggested.

"No, no, you are not Peter," Edmund replied, "Remember the last time you did that when I had a migraine? You are not doing that again."

"I didn't do anything wrong that time." Peter answered.

"Okay, well what about the time when you were carrying Mr Beaver, because he had injured his foot on that stone? You dropped him!"

"In my defence, I was hit by-"

"That was no reason to drop him!"

"You try carrying a beaver – a heavy beaver at that – across a section of land full of-"

"Peter, can we just figure out a way to get back."

"Sure, but remember that you started it." Peter commented as he grabbed a hold of Edmund and lifted him off of the ground, to which another protest was started as the pair set off. Although Peter did refuse to put his brother down for the entire journey. When the Professors house came into view, Peter did finally give into his brother and allowed him to walk (which was a lot more like limp,) the rest of the way to the door himself.

"Oh you're back," The Professor commented when he saw them enter the house before noticing Edmund's limp and pointing to the sofa, "Other than the injury, I assume you had a nice time?"

"Yes thank you," Peter replied as he placed Edmund's ankle onto a cushion, much to his brother's annoyance, "Have Susan and Lucy returned yet?"

"No, but they will be back very shortly I would think," The Professor answered as he sat down on the other sofa, "Have you considered my offer any further of schooling for that future idea of yours?"

"I had thought about it a little," Peter replied, "I think it would be a good idea, but I'd need Mother's permission."

"You could always write and ask her," Answered the Professor, before changing the subject, "How was your afternoon out then?" After his question, Peter and Edmund proceeded to tell the Professor all about their time out that afternoon and that also involved telling the debate over a cloud that looked a lot like Mr Tumnus and his umbrella.

* * *

><p>When Susan and Lucy had returned later that evening, they had asked the same question as the Professor, and Susan had insisted on Mother Hening over Edmund for the rest of the evening. Edmund minded the coddling still as he had always done and Peter tried to keep the oldest Pevensie sister's fussing to a minimum.<p>

But on the other hand, Lucy found it very amusing and a reminder of the years they had spent growing up in Narnia as a family. Edmund had filled Lucy in on the cloud that he thought looked like Mr Tumnus and Lucy smiled before divulging into a set of stories on her beloved faun friend, that did succeed in making everyone laugh, even Mrs Macready who - never truly understanding the ramblings about Narnia last year - didn't understand at all that any of this was true and passed it off as the imagination of the youngest Pevensie either way, all of them enjoyed their evening considerably after that filling it with games and laughter.

* * *

><p>Susan had headed up to her and Lucy's shared room after dinner, leaving her younger sister downstairs with her brothers to continue to play more games. It was a struggle for Susan, as she continued to paint the next horse in the image. Her painting was coming along nicely and Susan could completely see what she had originally visualised it to be when she had sketched it. She knew that Lucy had noticed her enthusiasm for conversations over Narnia diminishing, but she was only trying to be realistic. It had been almost a year now and they hadn't gone back into Narnia, so Susan was having doubts as to whether they would and did consider that they needed to accept their lives here.<br>But that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to paint it.

Lucy had come upstairs a little later and flopped down onto her bed, looking over at Susan, trying to decode what her older sister was thinking.

"You aren't going to tell me what you're painting are you?" She questioned and Susan just smiled as she looked over at her younger sister.

"What do you think, Lu?" With a sigh, Lucy picked up her little notebook and began to draw another picture of Mr Tumnus alongside her previous sketch of the lamppost. She looked over at Susan, who was now once again busy painting and smiled before returning to her own drawing.

* * *

><p>Later that evening, Peter and Edmund had their own conversation on Narnia again before Edmund had started reading his book again and Peter tried to finish some homework.<p>

Later on, Edmund decided to get some sleep and Peter stayed up for a little while longer after his brother had fallen asleep before deciding to turn out the lights and join him.

One day down, thirty four more to go.

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><p>Okay chapter 11 is done! I'm planning to start writing the next chapter tonight as well, so I can get that one up soon as well. I'm also planning to post my new story later on tonight or tomorrow that will be multi-chaptered and take the place of I'm Not Holding Your Hand, which has it's final chapter going up tonight as well. Thanks for favouriting, alerting, reviewing and reading :)<p> 


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